Ant Survey, Alice Mulga SuperSite, Core 1 ha, 2014

Ants are Australia’s dominant faunal group in terms of biomass and energy flow. They occupy all trophic levels, act as ecosystem engineers, feature in many mutualistic interactions with plants, and are a key food resource for many vertebrates. Ants are also Australia’s best studied insect group in terms of biogeography and community dynamics. They are the most widely used invertebrate bio-indicators in environmental assessment and monitoring. Ants were collected 27 Nov - 1 Dec 2014 and stored in ethanol for taxonomic assessment

就生物量与能量流动而言，蚂蚁是澳大利亚的优势动物类群。它们占据所有营养级，扮演生态系统工程师（ecosystem engineers）的角色，参与诸多与植物的互利共生互作，同时也是众多脊椎动物的关键食物资源。
就生物地理学与群落动态而言，蚂蚁也是澳大利亚研究最为深入的昆虫类群。它们是环境评估与监测领域中应用最广泛的无脊椎动物生物指示物（bio-indicators）。
本次研究的蚂蚁样本采集于2014年11月27日至12月1日，保存于乙醇中以供分类学评估。